Day 1 - Thursday 22 August 2024

08:00-09:00

Registration, Networking & Coffee

09:00-

09:05

Chairperson's Welcome

09:05-

09:15

Host Welcome

Trinidad & Tobago, Minister of Works and Transport, Senator The Hon. Rohan Sinanan

Senator The Hon Randall Mitchell

Senator The Hon Stuart Young SC

09:15-

09:45

Aviation Leader Interview

LATAM Airlines Colombia, CEO, Santiago Alvarez

Air Transport World, Editor in Chief, Karen Walker

09:45-

10:05

CAPA Outlook: State of the Industry {Download Presentation}

CAPA - Centre for Aviation, Senior Analyst Americas, Lori Ranson

10:05-

10:35

Aviation Leader Interview

American Airlines, VP International Operations, José Freig

IATA, Regional VP, Peter Cerdá

10:35-

11:15

Coffee Break & Networking

11:15-

12:00

CAPA Think Tank: Time for a rethink on regional aviation regulation?

Latin America and the Caribbean are among the world's fastest growing aviation regions, but growth is increasingly focused on inter-continental and domestic markets. Within the region, a lack of harmonisation on regulatory standards and differing approaches around competition, liberalisation and aviation policy all threaten to put a drag on the pace of regional development.

With differing regional approaches to liberalisation, not to mention shifts within countries from government to government, what policies should be put in place to enhance regional connectivity?

Where can regional governments make easy gains around common regulatory standards to support regional aviation?

Is the rise of pan-regional aviation groups going to unwind the old protectionist policies towards national carriers?

How do airlines work with governments in the region to influence developing areas of regulation around topics like sustainability and biofuels?

Moderator: HEICO, Senior VP Government & Industry Affairs, Alex de Gunten

Panel:

ALTA, Executive Director & CEO, Jose Ricardo Botelho

IATA, Regional VP Americas, Peter Cerda

ACI LAC, DG, Rafael Echevarne

Caribbean Airlines, CCO, Martin Aeberli

National Civil Aviation Agency - Brazil, International Affairs Advisor, Deigo Jose Pereira da Silva

12:05-

12:50

The Caribbean Market - Where to next for regional travel and tourism?

The Caribbean is one of the premier global tourism destinations, and the region has enjoyed an enviable bounce-back in recent years with arrivals passing pre-pandemic levels in many markets. While travel demand generally remains strong, largely thanks to sustained outbound travel from the US, indicators are emerging that growth is decelerating and outlooks are diverging between individual country markets. This session will examine key issues, opportunities and trends for the regional travel and tourism sector, including:

Was the strength of the post-pandemic tourism surge a temporary phenomenon or will tourism-dependent economies be able to sustain recent volumes of arrivals?

How are Caribbean destinations working to widen their appeal outside of traditional North American and European source markets? What are the opportunities for developing arrivals from markets in Central and Latin America?

With intra-regional travel remaining fragmented, capacity-limited and expensive, are there prospects for revitalising the local air travel market and developing true regional travel hubs?

Given that tourist arrivals are heavily influenced by ease of access, what are the best avenues to enhance direct air connectivity and frequency levels?

Moderator: CAPA - Centre for Aviation, Senior Analyst Americas, Lori Ranson

Panel:

American Airlines, MD of Operations, Mexico, Central America & Caribbean, Jose Maria Giraldo

Winair, CEO Hans van der Velde

InterCaribbean Airways, CEO, Trevor Sadler

Bahamasair, MD, Tracy Cooper

Barbados Aircraft & Aviation Services, CEO, Diane Shurland

12:55-

13:00

Welcome to Lunch

iCoupon, Sales Director, Viktoriya Soubra

13:00-

14:10

Lunch Break & Networking

14:10-14:30

Case Study: Will e-flight take off in LAC? {Download Presentation}

E-flight is a hot topic and seems to have great potential, with new aircraft, routes and initiatives announced on a regular basis. However, some are questioning its true potential and wonder whether it will ever be economically viable on a meaningful scale. We explore the economics of e-flight and identify key areas that the industry will have to pay attention to in order to make e-flight a true enabler of connectivity and contributor to the decarbonization of aviation. Our work makes use of a case study in the Caribbean and explores regulatory, financial and technical aspects driving the potential of e-flight. It provides recommendations for airlines, OEMs, airports, investors and policy makers on the potential of e-flight for specific markets and areas of intervention that will have the greatest impact on both connectivity and the sustainability of aviation.

NACO, Chief Economist & Financial Advisory Lead, Mick Werson

14:30-15:15

Sustainability: Accelerating the new energy transition

Latin America and the Caribbean is emerging as a potential global hotspot for action towards the decarbonisation of air travel. With burgeoning travel has come elevated public awareness around travel sustainability. Yet, activity in the region remains piecemeal and action appears to centred around individual public and private actors within the sector.

Despite a strong local biofuel sector, critical decarbonisation infrastructure - such as sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production and delivery facilities - remains largely absent in the region. How can the sector push for the localisation of major decarbonization projects and reduce its dependency on fuel produced in other regions?

Without localised SAF production in the short-term, what other avenues are there to enhance the sustainability of aviation in the region?

Are there options to push forward sustainable aviation on a country or even regional basis, or does action still fall to individual organisations?

Moderator: ALTA, Head of Fuel, User Charges and Environment, Jaime Escobar

Panel:

Neste, Manager Renewable Aviation, Max Jallad

SKY Airline, Sustainability Manager, Marco Larson

Analytical Technologies Limited, Managing Director, Namdeo Maharaj

HDF Caribbean, Head of Development, Dale Ramlakhan

15:20-15:50

Coffee break & Networking

15:50-16:35

Technology & distribution: Embracing customer-centric retailing

Aviation is increasingly transitioning away from a static, product-oriented model of retailing to one that is dynamic, contextual and personalised to the customer. At the same time, the customer journey continues to undergo a transformation, changing the way that travellers interact with their service providers both online and off.

How are regional carrier's progressing with the transition to new industry standards like NDC and One Order?

Can the transition to dynamic offers be aligned with greater demand for self-service and technology-augmented travel solutions?

What is the role of partnerships with technology providers, travel aggregators and other third-party firms to implement and manage dynamic retailing?

Moderator: Travel Again Advisory, Partner, Mike McCormick

Panel:

Arajet, Senior VP Customer Experience, Carlos Mesa

Hitit, Americas Sales Representative, Maximiliano Vicini

ESP Global Services, Head of Operations Americas, Vinod Bridglalsingh

Caribbean Airlines, Chief Information Officer, Jeremy Mohammed

16:40-17:10

ACI Presentation {Download Presentation}

ACI Latin America & Caribbean, DG, Rafael Echevarne

17:10-17:15

Day 1 Closing Remarks

19:00-22:30

Networking Gala Dinner

CAPA Airline Leader Summit Latin America & Caribbean 2024